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This research seeks to answer the question of why sociologists teach at community colleges, how they view their choices and how they view the discipline of sociology. I theorize that contrary to community college teaching being a "fall back" position, many sociologists actively seek those positions deliberately to enact social justice through their teaching of marginalized student populations. Specifically, I theorize that community college sociologists teach at community colleges purposefully to empower marginalized students to understand their place in the social world in order for the students to better navigate within that world and push back against that world. I theorize that many community college sociologists, in addition to teaching sociological concepts, help students understand soft skills needed for college and life success as a form of cultural capital activation/or transmission. In this research, I claim the "Hidden Curriculum" moniker as a social justice concept utilized by community college sociologists. I find that community college sociologists feel marginalized in their profession, work at institutions that are marginalized in their importance in our higher education system, and teach those students who have been marginalized by society yet do so, with enthusiasm. I theorize that the "Hidden Curriculum" of community college sociologists is a purposeful effort to teach sociology as a form of empowerment AND to teach students soft skills for success in society in its present form, as a way of enacting social justice to the very students who need it the most. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Since Greece entered the EU, language learning has become prominent and gained further momentum in the context of modern globalized economy. Acknowledging the intense commodification of the modern foreign language education industry, this research explores Greek Foreign Language Learner (FLL) investment in multiple foreign languages, and how symbolic value can influence it. To this purpose, I borrow the definition of symbolic value from the field of sociology--namely the context-dependent sociocultural meanings associated with commodities, or in the context of this research, languages--and, grounded on the construct of investment (Darvin & Norton, 2015), which is located at the intersection of identity, ideology, and capital, I perform a thematic analysis of thirty-three semi-structured, in-depth, interviews conducted with Greek FLLs. The results lead to the following conclusions: i) knowledge of English is so widespread it is taken for granted; investment in several foreign languages is thought essential for professional success and signifies personal cultivation and social class aspirations. ii) Proficiency, but mainly certification, in languages of major EU countries is thought to be necessary for career purposes, and has come to represent symbolic power, which is associated with desirable linguistic capital and learner identity, but not necessarily with economic advantages. iii) Recent economic developments drive learners to consider alternative language choices that are associated with negative symbolic value but are understood to grant access to the "new economic world order." However, despite their increasing economic relevance domestically and internationally, these languages cannot "stand alone" in terms of the individual's capital. Learning languages associated with positive symbolic value appears crucial in terms of identity as it allows learners to affiliate with desired imagined communities and to claim imagined futures, thereby forging modern national and transnational identities that transcend the limitations posed by current political and economic events in Greece. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Students often fail to develop a sophisticated understanding of scientific topics despite years of formal education designed to help them do so. Through studying how students learn the physical sciences, conceptual change researchers have amassed a large body of evidence that people, rather than being empty vessels who passively accept scientific theories, already possess rich intuitive theories about the world. More recently, researchers have argued that these intuitive theories shape how people understand the social world as well. In this project, we explored these intuitive theories about people and how these intuitive theories differ from how experts in the social sciences think about people. To do this, we used the Delphi method, a method of surveying experts that uses iterative rounds of quantitative judgments and comments. We created seven Delphi panels, each comprised of professors from a specific field of the social sciences (Anthropology, Economics, Geography, History, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology) and asked them to explain the most consequential ways that studying their field changes how one understands and explains the human world. Three of the panels were highly successful, one was moderately successful, and three were largely unsuccessful due to low participation. Findings indicate that social scientists can describe several consequential ways they think about the human world differently from those who have not studied the social sciences. Similarities and differences across fields of the social sciences are discussed, as well as differences within the fields as described by panelists. However, these disagreements within and across fields, and especially disagreements over the correct way to interpret terms, make it difficult to generalize across the social sciences as a whole. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This study explores the promise of student success in undergraduate education that exceeds its standard definition and measurement as retention and graduation rates. The research paradox framing this dissertation is: "In what ways can universities support conceptions of undergraduate student success that escape measurement?" This paradox is explored through two analytic questions: "What do the orientations of student success in the American higher education literature produce?" and "What does the map of student success at Great State University produce?" To explore these questions, this study utilizes assemblage theory, a theorization of the composition of the conditions that produce our social fields to develop a molecular sociology, the methodology by which this study opens up the determinate world to the map of the assemblage. A genealogy of the undergraduate education literature explores what the orientations of student success produce. This section first destabilizes the notion that student success is a collection of literature that moves forward linearly with the march of scientific measurement. Second, it provides the orientation of the current student success assemblage in American higher education, data-driven control. A cartography of student success at Great State University next maps the orientations and disorientations of the first year of GSU's student success initiative to data-driven control. In this mapping, we explore the initiative's continued production of the in/dividual student: the dividual, or data point subject produced by data-driven control through the justification of student-centered practices. We also explore the moments that escaped the capture of data-driven control, or liberal education. Through a compilation of cartographic locations, we come into relation with student success at GSU as an assemblage of indeterminate molecularities productive of determinate reality. This study concludes with a call for a fractal student success, a student success incommensurate with itself and its locations. This expansive success is fostered by critical methodologies and practices. Narrow policy changes suggested by many organizations active in student success serve to re/produce data-driven control. Change in our students' lives and possibilities will come from unyielding experimentations in research, practice, and policy to warp and overthrow data-driven control, and all assemblages that follow. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This study provides a critical ethnographic examination of the Mississauga Festival Youth Choir that emerged from my concerns related to mainstream community choral music education practices. The predominantly white memberships and Eurocentric repertoire of many community children's choirs suggests that traditional structures and practices are exclusionary, even when this may not be the intent of the choir's organizers. Interviews conducted with members of the Mississauga Festival Youth Choir, and analysis of my reflective teaching journal, suggest that multicultural choral music education when taught within in an anti-racism discursive framework, may contribute to a newly emerging sense of identity (and its related subjectivity) which I describe as multicultural human subjectivity. The concept of multicultural human subject is located within a cosmopolitan sociology which acknowledges that globalization impacts the local level of life within national societies, transforming everyday consciousness and leading to new forms of self-identity that accept cultural hybridity as a new norm. In this regard, cosmopolitan sociology contradicts the official Canadian discourse of multiculturalism, which assumes cultures to be monolithic. Cosmopolitanism also conflicts with many of the assumptions guiding multicultural North American music education practices, yet paradoxically multicultural music education practices appear to hold a form of cosmopolitanism as a tacitly implied outcome. The purposes of this study are to: 1) examine the ways that engaging in world music (global song) within the MFYC context may be performative to an emerging identity-subjectivity of "multicultural human subject," 2) investigate the relationship between my pedagogy as an anti-racism music educator and performativity related to multicultural human subjectivity, and 3) identify the ways discourses of race, ethnicity, nationalism, and multiculturalism may both contribute to and confound the emergence of multicultural human subjectivity. In this last objective, my reflexive journal points to areas of personal bias that stand in the way of achieving my goals for the choir. Interviews conducted with members of the Mississauga Festival Youth Choir allow the study's participants an important voice in our academic understanding of performativity and the role of conflicting discourses in an individual's self-understanding. The interviews and critiques of my own teaching praxis illuminate both successes and stumbling blocks on the journey toward a self and other understanding indicative of multicultural human subjectivity. The following are appended: (1) Initial Informal Recruitment Letter; (2) Invitation to Participate in a Research Project; (3) Consent Form; (4) Assent Form for Minor Participants; (5) Interview Guideline; (6) An Open Door (Lyrics); and (7) Vision and Artistic Objectives. (Contains 56 footnotes, 3 tables, and 1 figure.)

In this study, I examined the academic search process and the role that unconscious bias plays in the evaluation and recruitment of faculty candidates. The academic search process and participants' beliefs, values, and attitudes regarding how they evaluated faculty candidates and made decisions regarding shortlist placement were examined. I used a descriptive exploratory design employing a mixed method methodology. Data were collected from an online survey extended to 3,978 participants. The survey was administered to sociologists across the United States who had served on an academic search committee. I examined the attributes that were important to search committee members when evaluating or ranking candidates for shortlist placement, investigated search committee members' awareness of their propensity to express subtle bias behavior against African American faculty candidates, and analyzed responses to open-ended questions that were designed to examine personal search committee experiences. Social identity theory (SIT) and critical race theory (CRT) provided the theoretical frameworks for investigating the following primary research question: "What influence, if any, does unconscious bias have on the evaluation of applicant suitability for shortlist placement?" The findings revealed that non-White faculty placed less importance on all of the attributes identified in the study in comparison to their White faculty colleagues. The data obtained indicated that race and ethnicity impacts bias against African American faculty candidates, bias mitigation, and the level for which participants seek out candidates with characteristics similar to their own. Findings also revealed differences by academic characteristics such as tenure status, academic rank, institution type, and the number of search committees served. Six major themes became evident and were derived from written responses to open-ended questions: (a) Paradoxical Experiences of Sociology Faculty, (b) Personal Bias Absolutely Influences Decisions, (c) Personal Mitigation Strategies and Coping Mechanisms, (d) To Call or Not to Call Out, (e) Trial by Fire, and (f) Fix It Talk. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The purpose of this study is to analyze the nature of materials used by scholars in the field of Appalachian studies. Citations were analyzed from four monographic works: "Appalachia and the Politics of Culture,""Appalachia in an International Context,""Appalachia: Social Context, Past and Present," and "Appalachia in the Making." Findings of the investigation revealed that: (1) men publish more articles than women relevant to Appalachia; (2) the articles were most frequently published in journals; (3) the subject most frequently written about was Sociology; (4) most articles were published in the United States; and (5) most of the articles had references that were more than 10 years old. (Contains 16 references and 12 charts and tables that show distributions). (Author/AEF)

This thesis addresses the issue of cultural matching in the area of mentoring in youth and social services and examines, within the context of current and future racial relations, the potential messages that cultural matching may be communicating to youth. The beginning chapters historically trace juvenile delinquency and child-saving services and the current status of youth. This is followed by chapters that define and provide various interpretations of mentoring and its history; its program structures, goals, and operations; research evaluating its effects; and other sociological and psychological research in support of its ideology. Next is a discussion on the two perspectives of how matching should be executed, their ideological bases, and how the opposing beliefs can be understood through the application of sociological literature pertaining to the nature of prejudice, intergroup relations, and ideologies of assimilation and multicultural societies. A brief chapter presents research on minority children's racial and ethnic identities, areas often mentioned in defense of cultural matching. Finally, two social-service cases are compared on the basis of their transracial-adoption and human-service relationships. Recommendations for the future of the field and directions for evaluation conclude the paper. An appendix presents study data. (Contains more than 250 references.) (GLR)

Location-based social networks (LBSNs) have recently attracted the interest of millions of users who can now not only connect and interact with their friends--as it also happens in traditional online social networks--but can also voluntarily share their whereabouts in real time. A location database is the backbone of a location-based social network and includes fine-grained semantic information for real-world places. The footprints captured in a location database represent the socioeconomic activities of city dwellers and urban mobility at scale. LBSNs bridge the gap between the online and offine physical world, providing an unprecedented opportunity for researchers to access information that will allow them to place and understand human movements in the contexts of urban, social and economic activities. In this dissertation, I design statistical analysis and modeling frameworks to examine how factors, including social interaction, economic incentives and local events, affect human movement across places in urban space. The dissertation first shows that people's visitation to local places exhibit significant levels of homophily, where peer in uence can explain up to 40% of a geographically localized similarity between friends. We also find that the social selection mechanism is triggered by non-trivial similarity which is captured by places with specific network characteristics. Next, our quasi-experimental analysis reveals that online promotions in LBSNs are not as effective as anecdotal stories might suggest in attracting customers, and consequently in affecting the underlying city-dweller mobility. These results can have significant implications on advertisement strategies for local businesses. Finally, our developed framework is applied to assess the impact of local government decisions on urban mobility and economic activities, which can provide a blueprint for future educated policy making. The outcome of this dissertation is envisioned to help better understand human urban movements motivated by social, economic and external environmental factors and further foster applications in sociology, local economy and urban planning. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions that Alabama funeral service licensees had towards their academic preparation for entry-level funeral service careers in a professional field that was changing. More specifically, this study identified and examined specific learning objectives within the American Board of Funeral Service Education's (ABFSE) curriculum outlines. Those curriculum content areas included: Communication Skills, Cremation, Embalming, Funeral Directing, Funeral Service Psychology and Counseling, and Sociology. A second purpose of this study was to determine what suggestions, if any, Alabama funeral service licensees had towards improving ABFSE curriculum in order to better prepare licensees for entry-level employment. This study was significant because previous research, for various reasons, did not include funeral service licensees from the State of Alabama. To gather data, an online survey was adapted from previous research of LuBrant (2013) that examined similar data on a national level. There were three adult education concepts used as the theoretical framework of this study. They were: 1) Houle's Typology by Cyril Houle, 2) Andragogy by Malcolm Knowles, and 3) Experiential Education/Learning proposed in several variations by John Dewey, David Kolb, and Roger Fry. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This study utilized Freire's "conscientizacão" as a framework to understand the development of student voice among traditionally underrepresented students of color in a sociology classroom at a large community college in the Central Valley of California. Understanding how student voice is developed in a community college classroom provides faculty with knowledge and practices to help students develop voice and therefore an ability to critically reflect on their classroom learning, apply knowledge to their lived experience, and develop a sense of agency in their ability to effect change. A case study design allowed for an in-depth examination of the elements that foster voice. Participant observations and semi-structured interviews with 10 students, the instructor, and Supplemental Instruction leader revealed conditions, practices, and pedagogies that nurtured student voice. Findings provide faculty with practical ideas to create community in the classroom, help students feel connected, and engage students with pedagogy that transforms the classroom into the real world to foster voice. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This study examines the development of first-generation African American and Latino college students' sociopolitical consciousness in the context of their learning of sociology as a component of their liberal education studies. Given the paucity of research on how college students develop sociopolitical consciousness, this study addresses: (1) the nature of first-generation undergraduate African American and Latino students' sociopolitical consciousness at point of entry to college-level study of introductory sociology, (2) college students' sociopolitical consciousness prior to (or early in) their interaction with sociological ideas, (3) changes that may occur in these students' sociopolitical consciousness as they interact with sociological ideas, (4) classroom activities that may be related to changes experienced by the students, and (5) acts, reflective of sociopolitical consciousness, in which the students engage. Conducted at an urban university with high racial and ethnic diversity, the study featured documentation and analysis of 18 focal students' learning in two sections of a sociology class. The study relies on interviews with the focal students about their learning and thinking in and out of class, interviews with instructors and administrators, class observations, analysis of students' written work and other class materials including textbooks, and review of institutional and curricular documents. Study findings portray undergraduates' sociopolitical consciousness as comprised of "awareness" and "understanding" of sociopolitical forces. Students' awareness and understanding may vary by degree (amount of) and topic. College students enter the classroom already in possession of some sociopolitical consciousness which may be viewed as part of their prior knowledge. Study findings indicate that students' sociopolitical consciousness intensifies and at times is transformed as students encounter sociological subject matter. Two aspects of the classroom may contribute to developing undergraduates' sociopolitical consciousness: (1) in-class discussions and (2) professors offering examples during their teaching relevant to students' interests. The study suggests that students' acts of analysis and/or critique, and their acts of involvement, can contribute to their "sociopolitical capacity"--an amalgamation of consciousness and acts. Implications and ideas for future research follow. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The purpose of this study was to understand the factors that lead entrepreneurs to seek formal education. The evidence shows that entrepreneurs are playing an increasingly important role in producing economic growth in the United States. This researcher examined the theoretical foundations of entrepreneurship based on economic, psychological, and sociological research. With the use of a phenomenological research design, data were collected from entrepreneurs through in-depth interviews. The research questions focused on the factors that lead entrepreneurs to seek formal education, the value entrepreneurs see in formal education, and the barriers preventing entrepreneurs from enrolling in formal education. The participants were selected using purposive sampling and were individually interviewed. The participants were current entrepreneurs enrolled at Delta College, which serves students from three Michigan counties (Bay, Midland, and Saginaw). Data analysis involved identifying common themes from the interviews, and drawing parallels between the research findings, and the literature. The results of the study can help institutions of higher education, researchers, and prospective entrepreneurs improve the educational process. Those who seek to understand and benefit from the phenomenon of successful entrepreneurship through education and mentorship may be best suited to learn from this research. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The genre of the research article has attracted the attention of researchers, particularly after the research conducted by Swales (1981). In 1990, Swales introduced the Create a Research Space (CARS) model which consists of three rhetorical moves (i.e. units): Move 1: creating a research territory, Move 2: establishing a niche, and Move 3: occupying the niche. Several studies have applied the CARS model to examine the introduction of the research article (e.g., Anthony, 1999; Samraj, 2002) and others have used it to analyze the abstract (e.g., Lores, 2004; Martin, 2003). In addition to considering the CARS model as the analytical tool for the RA introductions, researchers (e.g. Kafes, 2012; Li, 2011) have used Hyland's (2000) model to capture the rhetorical structure of abstracts. Instead of examining these sections separately, Samraj (2005) argued that the genre of research article will be better understood if attention is switched to exploring the relation between sections. Thus, she examined the relation between abstracts and introductions in two related disciplines, conservation biology and wildlife behavior, and found that they were more related in the former discipline. This dissertation investigates the relationship between research article abstracts and introductions in two disciplines, educational psychology and sociology, and in two languages, Arabic and English. The two analytical tools used were Hyland's (2000) model for the abstracts, and the modified version of the CARS model (Swales, 2004) for the introductions as well as for the abstracts. The results revealed significant variations across languages and across disciplines. Concerning the abstracts, the most frequent moves in all texts were the purpose, method, and product moves. The introduction and conclusion moves were more frequent in the English language. Specifically, the conclusion move was in educational psychology and the introduction move was in sociology. Concerning the examination of the introductions, Arabic texts included fewer instances of Move 2 and Move 3. Also, Move 1 was found to be different across disciplines as it provided background information on the topic in sociology texts in both languages. Yet, in educational psychology, Move 1 presented centrality claims and topic generalizations, as traditionally prescribed in the CARS model. Finally, regarding the relation between abstracts and introductions, the results showed that the most shared move between the two sections in both disciplines and both languages was "presenting the present work" (Move 3) move. "Establishing a territory" (Move 1) and "establishing a niche" (Move 2) moves were more related in English compared to Arabic and concurrently was more shared in sociology as opposed to educational psychology. The pedagogical implications are relevant to textbook developers as well as to students, especially nonnative learners. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Electronic networks of practice (eNoP) are special types of electronic social structures focused on discussing domain-specific problems related to a skill-based craft or profession in question and answer style forums. eNoP have implemented peer-to-peer feedback systems in order to motivate future contributions and to distinguish contribution quality. However, there is a lack of empirical data or a set of theoretical perspectives in the literature to evaluate their effectiveness against these claims. The purpose of this dissertation is to develop and empirically test two related theoretical perspectives concerning voting practices within these systems and the usefulness that these systems have in terms of promoting future contributions. I do this by performing two independent (but related) empirical studies. In the first study, I qualitatively demonstrate that the off-topic forums within eNoP have the potential to be virtual third places, special types of informal gathering places. I then quantitatively demonstrate that members who have greater affective place attachment to the third place portions of the network and members who make identity claims with the eNoP through their third place participation have a higher propensity of contributing a positively rated practice-related contribution and a lower propensity of becoming inactive on the practice side of the eNoP. I further demonstrate empirically that the usefulness of the peer-to-peer feedback system in terms of promoting future practice-related contributions is qualified by third place participation, most notably site level identity claims made by third place participants. I argue that this is the case, because status attainment and maintenance in a place of emotional and psychological significance is more important than status attainment and maintenance in 'just another' knowledge sharing eNoP. In the second study, I utilize a cultural sociology perspective drawing primarily from Bourdieu's integrated social theory (fields, forms of capital and habitus) and Eliasoph and Lichterman's concept of culture in interaction in order to explain voting practices within peer-to-peer feedback systems. In this study, I argue that a vote is a complex social and cultural phenomenon that is based on more than the quality of the post. I demonstrate empirically that the lower the social class of the giver and receiver of feedback, the greater the differences in professional habitus between the giver and the receiver of feedback, and members who violate the group style have a higher propensity of receiving negative votes (as opposed to positive votes). My results further reveal that the effect of small professional habitus differences is amplified in the presence of a group style violation, specifically group bond violations. These results hold even after controlling for the quality of the post and previous interaction histories between dyadic pairs of members. This dissertation advances the knowledge of social dynamics within eNoP by complementing existing eNoP literature, which explains interactions and knowledge contributions largely in terms of networking constructs such as network centrality and network density using market-based ties and traditional resource exchange perspectives. My research demonstrates that eNoP are much broader than resource exchange systems and may be more appropriately conceptualized as social and cultural systems. Concepts of place, social stratification, habitus, and cultural in interaction provide eNoP researchers an enhanced theoretical toolkit for explaining and predicting the social interactions within these electronic social structures. This dissertation also has practical ramifications for eNoP site designers and the designers of peer-to-peer feedback systems more generally. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

In response to the continued reduction in higher education funding at the state and federal levels, educational administrators at both public and private institutions have had to reduce the number of course offerings, resulting in layoffs of those faculty members who do not meet regulated degree requirements for enough courses to retain their fulltime status. This study examined the effect of instructors' content knowledge (subject matter degree) on the results of the students' evaluations of teaching effectiveness (SETE) at a private for-profit junior college. The study employed an ex post facto causal-comparative research design. The data were analyzed through a hierarchical multiple linear regression in order to determine how much of the variance in students' responses on their evaluations of teacher effectiveness was accounted for by the instructors' content knowledge after controlling for gender, course experience, formal training in education and/or instruction, and time of day (session). The questions were categorized into four subscales using Shulman's Model of Pedagogical Reasoning and Action: comprehension, transformation, instruction, and evaluation. The data were then disaggregated into the following course subjects: English, math, natural science, psychology, and sociology. Results of the analyses suggest that instructors' content knowledge may have a negative effect on SETE results for the subscale evaluation. No effect of content knowledge was found on SETE data in the areas of comprehension, transformation, or instruction. The data suggest that the control variable of morning session has a negative effect on SETE data for the subscales comprehension, transformation, and instruction, while course experience shows evidence to suggest a positive effect within comprehension and transformation. When disaggregated by course subject matter, data suggest a negative effect of formal training on SETE results for English and psychology. Data also suggest a negative effect of morning session on sociology while course experience had a positive effect. The evidence suggests that a subject matter degree has no practical significance in defining instructional effectiveness from the perspective of the student, and that decision makers look to other assurances of instructional quality and not rely solely on a subject matter degree as a proxy for the requisite content knowledge. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Although social stratification usually calls to mind the hierarchical ranking of individuals, sociology often broadly considers it the ranking of any social objects. The Treiman Socio-Economic Index (SEI), for example, provides a quantitative assessment of the hierarchical ranking of occupations. This dissertation considers the hierarchical ranking of eight social science disciplines (anthropology, communication, economics, geography, library and information science, political science, psychology, and sociology). The hierarchical ranking of disciplines was operationalized as the degree of asymmetry in cross-discipline citation patterns. Asymmetries in the information flow in the citation data were regarded as indicators of gravitational gradients (making movement in some directions "easier" than others) and the idea that "higher" disciplines exerted greater influence over "lower" disciplines than vice versa was explored. Lower ranking disciplines were expected to cite higher ranking disciplines more than higher ranking disciplines cited lower ranking disciplines. Interdisciplinary citations in journal citation data from 1979-1983 and 2005-2009 showed considerable asymmetries, and ranking of the status of the eight disciplines investigated were derived from those asymmetries. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The purpose of the proposed study was to construct a chronological history and analysis of the published learning objectives for the Introductory Sociology survey course in the universities of the United States from 1954-2008, as reflected by objective statements from selected peer-reviewed periodicals. Because of the gradual transformational characteristics of sociological change, the period 1954-2008 was divided into five slightly overlapping subperiods on the basis of major social, political, and educational events, following the design first used by Ogden (1972). Selected periodicals were searched for statements of learning objectives for the collegiate Introductory Sociology survey course. These statements were cataloged into Knowledge, Process, Attitude and Interest, and Cultural Awareness categories. Statements were further cataloged into 12 objective types. The resulting data were classified within and across subperiods according to frequency of occurrence, category, authorship, and year. Eleven Sociological journals that met the criteria to be included in this study published a total of 30,903 articles during the years 1954-2008. Only 0.26% of all journal articles examined addressed the undergraduate Introductory Sociology course. Of those, 18.9% actually wrote about objectives for the course. Only 0.05% of all articles were concerned with teaching or learning objectives. A total of 52 objective statements was found. Knowledge objectives were most prevalent with 21, followed by 16 Process statements, 9 Attitude and Interest statements, and 6 Cultural Awareness statements. Authors of articles used in this study could not specifically agree upon what should be taught in the Introductory Sociology course, except for the relative importance of specific categories of learning objectives. The Most Important Objective type for teaching the Introductory Sociology course was found to be Major Facts, Principles, Concepts, or Fundamentals that stress knowledge for the sake of knowledge or its relation to the understanding of sociology. The research indicated that this objective type should presumably serve as the primary foundation in the curriculum design of the course. A paucity of data in this study precluded any ability to determine or predict trends in learning objectives. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Dual-enrollment programs allow high school students to enroll in college-level classes to gain college and high school credit concurrently. Research on how online, dual-enrolled high school students (DES) construct knowledge when compared with online community college students (CCS) is needed to help administrators determine the design, implementation, and support systems that maximize dual-enrolled students' program outcomes. Using the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, the purpose of this mixed methods case study was to analyze, compare, and contrast the characteristics of knowledge construction for CCS and DES in an online, undergraduate Midwestern college sociology course by exploring knowledge construction patterns and determining how they were similar and different across the three elements of CoI (social, teaching, and cognitive presence). Data sources were archived course discussion transcripts, a teacher interview, the class syllabus, and podcasts. Qualitative themes were derived using a combination of framework categories and open coding. The CoI model was used to transform the data quantitatively, and t tests and Pearson correlation coefficients were used for comparisons. Findings included: (a) the CoI model can be applied to high school level students, (b) DES used discussion as an academic growth platform while CCS struggled with the same, and (c) metacognition may be a 4th contributor in the model. Recommendations include integrating the groups, which may offer greater academic rigor and high-quality academic modeling opportunities for both. Positive social change implications include providing insights that allow administrators to enhance offerings for dual-enrollment students and resulting student success in academia and lifelong learning. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The purpose of the study was to construct a chronological history and analysis of the published educational objectives for the Introductory Sociology survey course in the colleges and universities of the United States from 1892 to 1957, as reflected by objective statements from selected peer-reviewed periodicals. Because of the gradual transformational characteristics of sociological change, the period 1892 to 1957 was divided into five slightly overlapping subperiods on the basis of major social, political, and educational events, following the design first used by Ogden (1972). Selected periodicals were searched for statements of educational objectives for the collegiate Introductory Sociology survey course. These statements were cataloged into Knowledge, Process, Attitude and Interest, and Cultural Awareness categories. Statements were further cataloged into 12 objective types. The resulting data were classified within and across subperiods according to frequency of occurrence, category, authorship, and year. Six Sociological journals that met the criteria to be included in this study published a total of 17,945 articles during the years studied. Only 0.44% of articles written addressed the undergraduate Introductory Sociology course. Of those, 27.8% actually mentioned objectives for the course. Only 0.12% of all articles addressed educational objectives and produced a total of 89 objective statements. Knowledge objectives were most prevalent with 30, followed by 22 Process statements, 20 Cultural Awareness statements, and 17 statements of Attitude and Interest. Authors of articles used in this study could not specifically agree upon what should be taught in the Introductory Sociology course, except for the relative importance of specific categories of learning objectives. The "Most Important Objective" type for teaching the Introductory Sociology course was Application to Daily Life, those statements that tie the application of use of major facts, principles, concepts, or fundamentals of sociology to real life situations as well as those objectives that stress the accumulation of a body of knowledge. This objective type presumably served in the foundational curriculum design of the course. The paucity of data in this study precluded any ability to determine or predict trends in learning objectives. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This dissertation reports the results of a content analysis of Introductory Sociology textbooks in order to assess their coverage of, and approach to, the teaching of "culture" in the hopes of ultimately creating a unified approach for the introduction of students to the sociology of culture. Looking at introductory sociology textbooks, the current study documents if and to what extent the topic of culture is included; and if so, analyzes which topics are included, how much space is dedicated to culture, and particularly which frames (in Goffman's (1974 [1986]) sense) are used to present sociology of culture. The results of this research highlight three important tendencies of introductory texts. Firstly, there is an apparent inconsistency between current academic work in the sociology of culture and inclusion of that work in introductory textbooks. This is particularly true of cultural production. Additionally, textbooks are extremely likely to treat culture as a concept in an anthropological sense (including a discussion of language, norms, and values) or in terms of diversity or multiculturalism. Finally, textbooks on the whole do not appear to change over time in significant ways. This is certainly not the case from edition to edition (usually a span of one to two years), but also among textbooks from different time periods (the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s). [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This dissertation explores the relationship between US acting, actor training, and the sociology of theatre. Using the cultural criticism of notable Western Marxists, it argues that the profession of US acting has become a commodified enterprise, most especially since the 1970s and 80s. By using the now defunct League of Professional Theatre Training Programs as its object of study, the dissertation examines the decreasing importance of stage actors, and by extension, the not-for-profit theatre in American society, a trend that began in the 1970s and persists today. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Although becoming increasingly diverse over the last 50 years, American occupations remain highly segregated and black workers are still underrepresented in managerial and professional occupations. To better understand the documented racial inequality in access to high status positions within the American labor market, this study investigates the effects of job-level segregation on promotions and authority attainment within the college football coaching profession. Drawing on research and theory from the sociology of sport and sports management literature on stacking--the racial segregation of athletes into positions based on their responsibility for controlling the outcome of competition--as well as the more general sociological literature on job-level segregation and racial inequality in promotions and authority attainment, I investigate the extent to which the documented disparity in black and white coaches' career achievements results from their differential access to or returns from certain types of positions prior to and upon entering the college football coaching profession. By studying the college football coaching profession, one with a large proportion of black workers (e.g. athletes) and lower-level managers (e.g. position coaches), yet relatively few in the upper-echelons of the profession (e.g. coordinators and head coaches), this study is unique in its ability to examine the effects of race-typed jobs on both white and black workers' careers. In doing so, I find that racial differences in coaches' access to executive positions--those with authority over the entire team (i.e. head coach) or the offensive or defensive divisions respectively (i.e. offensive and defensive coordinators) as well as differences in coaches' general patterns of mobility throughout their careers result from both black and white coaches' differential access to and returns from occupying non-central (those with less outcome control) and central (those with more outcome control) positions. Using data on complete career histories of 320 full-time college football coaches at the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision level, I apply two longitudinal techniques--event-history analysis and sequence analysis. Both techniques find that the negative effects of occupying non-central positions do not extend to white coaches. When occupying noncentral coaching positions, white coaches are as likely to move into a high status and high authority positions and be on a high mobility career track as black coaches with central playing experience or who occupy a central coaching position. Such findings contribute to prior research on racial inequality in the college football coaching profession. As the first study to investigate the entirety of college football coaches' careers it offers a more complete picture of how black and white coaches' careers develop differently over time. Furthermore, by drawing on theoretical ideas from the more general sociological literature on the effects of occupational-and job-level segregation on subsequent mobility (e.g. particularistic mobility, racialized jobs, and glass escalators), the results presented here place the college football coaching profession within a more general context of high status, professional and managerial professions. As a result, the findings have important implications for similar managerial and professional occupations as well as contemporary labor markets that emphasize general experience and subjective skills over firm-specific experience and formal credentials. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Past IS studies on culture have primarily focused on two levels of analysis: national culture and organizational culture. The gap in our knowledge of culture is in the area of occupational culture of IT professionals. Occupational culture, unlike organizational culture, is not bounded by a single organization, but rather forms itself around specific expertise, similar tasks, and a sense of itself as a distinct occupational group. In Part I, the "strong program" of cultural sociology is used to examine and interpret the meaning of the core values of the IT occupation through the framework of shared language, shared history, and shared context. The interview results informed the creation of a survey instrument in Part II to measure six occupational values, Autonomy, Structure, Precision, Innovation, Reverence for Knowledge, and Enjoyment, and ten typical business management values. Significant differences were found between responses of IT professionals and non-IT business managers in 32 companies in the U.S. An additional executive survey measured the level of IT/Business Alignment and IT Value for each firm in Part III. A PLS model provides evidence that occupational cultural differences do significantly impact both IT/Business alignment and IT Value. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This dissertation is based on a long-term ethnographic and sociophonetic study of 15 transgender people on the female-to-male (or "transmasculine") identity spectrum. The focus of the study is the way these individuals' voices change during the first 1-2 years of masculinizing hormone therapy, which brings about a drop in vocal pitch along with other salient physiological changes. Based on regular recordings of participants during a one year period, the analysis tracks changes in fundamental frequency as well as formant frequencies and the acoustic characteristics of [s], each of which has a different place in biology-driven theories of gender and the voice. In addition to ostensibly hormonally driven changes to speakers' available fundamental frequency range, I present evidence that these speakers are engaged in various types of articulatory shifts as part of their gender role transition, which affect both formants and [s]. However, I argue that changes in all three of the phonetic domains examined here must be situated in both sociocultural and linguistic context, even where biology appears to play a significant role. The analyses presented, which include attention to both intra- and inter-speaker variation, draw on a multilayered understanding of gender derived from transgender people's own distinctions between gender assignment, gender role, gender identity, and gender presentation. My speakers' metalinguistic commentary on gender and the voice further elucidates the constellations of phonetic features that combine to create their cohesive gendered speaking styles. Ultimately, I focus on the ways that changes in one phonetic variable, like pitch, can recontextualize other elements of a speaker's linguistic style, like the acoustic spectrum of [s]. This connection drives home the necessity of considering the relationship between linguistic characteristics, rather than treating them as entirely separable variables. Attention to stylistic wholes, over individual variables, points us toward the notion that transmasculine individuals do not engage in across-the-board masculinization, but rather bring together acoustic characteristics acquired from disparate sources in order to construct phonetic styles that reflect their complex affiliations with manhood, maleness, and masculinity. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Educational credentials are clearly linked to economic success, but the reasons for this link are not clear. Common theoretical approaches provide explanations but lack direct employer perspectives on credentials' meaning and the context in which employers make sense of credentials. In this study, I used an alternative perspective based in Meyer's (1977) theory of education as an institution, labor market sociology, the sociology of work, and organizational theory to examine the role of social context in how employers make sense of the associate degree for IT technician jobs. I conducted comparative case studies of contrasting labor markets: Detroit and Seattle. I interviewed 78 hiring managers in 58 organizations of varying types about their perceptions and ways of using degrees in hiring IT technicians. Hiring managers' perspectives on associate and bachelor's degrees for IT technician jobs reflect their ideas of degree holders' social roles. They expected associate degree holders to be eager to please and to lack ability, skill, and initiative relative to the bachelor's degree holders. In contrast, they expected bachelor's degree holders to feel entitled. These expectations of traits found in different degree holders illustrate the relative status differences between these credentials and degree holders' reaction to these differences. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The juxtaposition of classic sociological theory and the, relatively, young discipline of human-computer interaction (HCI) serves as a powerful mechanism for both exploring the theoretical impacts of technology on human interactions as well as the application of technological systems to moderate interactions. It is the intent of this dissertation to contribute to the knowledge of both HCI and sociology through a brief discussion of the state of sociological theory and its shortcomings, the design and evaluation of a system to promote social affinity in dyadic work, a method for empirically measuring affinity free from the social desirability bias of surveys, and a proposal for a new direction for HCI to include classic sociological theories. Ultimately, this dissertation serves as an introduction to a series of future research projects by laying the theoretical and methodological foundations for exploring indirect technological mediation of social interactions. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This study explored memorable messages that former football student-athletes recalled regarding academics and athletics. Respondents were asked via interviews and a survey questionnaire to recall memorable messages and to describe the source, context, and importance of the message. Student-athletes were asked what memorable messages were evoked when making decisions with respect to academics and athletics while they were participating in intercollegiate athletics. Sociological theories were used to analyze the graduation gap difference between Black and White football student-athletes. These theoretical perspectives were used to explore the messages student-athletes received during socialization from parents, coaches, teachers, friends, teammates and others. The socialization agents of student-athletes, and the memorable messages they sent, were analyzed to comprehend why Black football student-athletes graduate at a significantly lower rate than their White counterparts. The findings examined positive and negative memorable messages and how they contributed to academic and athletic achievement. The research explored the association of memorable messages to the time commitment and significance of academics and athletics and the connection to graduation rates for Black and White football student-athletes. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The goal of this dissertation is twofold: 1) To develop a framework and method for simultaneously examining many different school organizations and their relation to patterns of school change and 2) To utilize that framework to obtain a district-wide understanding of the organizational functioning and change patterns of Chicago Public School (CPS) elementary schools over the past decade. Accomplishing these items is important for scaling school reforms in general and for Chicago in particular. Additionally, developing a rigorous approach to studying organizational diversity and change, while remaining connected to the work inside organizations, is an important contribution to research in organizational sociology. A configurational framework for specifying types of schools structures the analyses. The elements of a configuration correspond to a school's system of instructional coordination, control, and improvement. Research from the organizational and educational literatures provide the conceptual foundation for this framework. Survey data from the Consortium on Chicago School Research is then used to conduct a cross-sectional analysis (2007) and longitudinal HLM analysis (1997-2005) of the organizational configurations across CPS elementary schools and their relationships to school-wide instructional patterns. Case studies of two CPS schools are also conducted to illuminate the specific processes through which instruction is coordinated, controlled, and improved. Consistent with recent educational work, the findings indicate that schools with more communal elements are more organizationally-integrated, have more coherent instruction, and perform at higher academic levels. However, bureaucratic elements also promote instructional coherence, provided there is a communal base. Anomic schools with little coordination and control are the most instructionally-fragmented and lowest performing. Different dynamics also appear to dominate in schools at different performance levels. Over time, schools with more meta-routines (routines for changing instructional routines) are able to improve instructional consistency, and schools that changed configurations tend to exhibit instructional trajectories corresponding to the direction of their configurational change. Teacher retention rates are an important factor mediating the relationship between student body demographics and configurational trajectories. In addition to illuminating specific processes in schools, the case studies also reveal that traditional CPS elementary schools (represented by case study 1) are far from their organizational potential for coordinating, controlling, and improving instruction (represented by case study 2). [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

While withdrawal from higher education may be the result of many reasons both within and beyond the control of the student or the institution, the intent of not returning to higher education indicates the acceptance of a permanent disassociation with the pursuit of the higher education endeavor. It is of paramount importance in understanding the relationship between our higher education institutions and our society that those engaged in institutional research develop the fullest understanding of this phenomenon and its implications for the future of those institutions and that society. In order to do this, however, we must look beyond the actual behavior of dropping out and examine the academic intentions underlying those behaviors. This study brought together two lines of research, one drawn from behavioral theory and one from college persistence theory, to develop a model of intentions relating specifically to college persistence intentions. Two disciplines, behavioral theory and higher education persistence theory have developed along different paths in determining effects on behavior. Each has important implications related to the prediction of college students' decisions to stay in or leave higher education. While each theory is useful, neither is adequate to fully address why and if students will persist in college. First, behavioral theorists have made the distinction between intentions and action. One such theorist, Ajzen, concluded that intentions play the central and primary role in determining actions and developed the Theory of Planned Behavior around this concept. Second, educational researchers have developed models of college persistence that can classified into the perspectives of sociological, psychological, organizational, and economic. The problem identified was that these two lines of research have never been brought together in the examination of college persistence. This study addressed how to integrate these areas of research in the examination of college persistence and, by doing so, addressed a void in research concerning intentions in college persistence. The study utilized the background, pre-collegiate experience, and collegiate experience data reported by 372 freshmen and sophomore students at a four-year higher education institution in the development and evaluation of path models for intentions to persist in higher education. This quantitative study analyzed the relationships found to exist among these variables and utilized path analysis techniques in the determination of models of freshman and sophomore college student intentions toward future participation in higher education. Specifically, research questions focused on four areas of analysis: 1) pre-collegiate variables that influence perceptions of higher education experiences; 2) sociological, psychological, organizational, and economic perceptions of higher education experiences that influence intentions regarding participation in higher education; 3) interactions between pre-collegiate variables and perceptions of higher education experiences that influence intentions for participation in higher education; and 4) development of causal models that resulted from the observed relationships among pre-collegiate variables, perceptions of higher education experiences, and intentions for participation in higher education. Path analysis procedures resulted in rather complex models for intentions of persistence, whether at the same institution or at a different institution, as well as for undecided intentions. On the other hand, path analysis procedures resulted in far less complex models for intentions of stopping out, whether returning to the same institution or a different institution, as well as for intentions of dropping out. All models, however, met the criteria established for goodness-of-fit and parsimony which characterize accurate and useful models of the phenomena. While collegiate experience factors varied noticeably among the models, several background and pre-collegiate experience variables appeared consistently among the models: mother's education, certainty of major, expectations of attending college, quality of guidance, satisfaction with high school life, distance, and years between graduate. This observation highlighted the relevance of the factors to all of the persistence intention dependent variables. The study contributed to research in higher education persistence through the development of path models for these intentions. These models were developed to enhance our knowledge and understanding of the character and nature of persistence and departure decisions among college students. The study represented an attempt to look deeper into higher education persistence and attrition phenomena by examining, analyzing, and modeling the academic intentions underlying those actions. An examination of the background, pre-collegiate, and collegiate factors encompassed in this study and their role in the development of academic intentions of students regarding higher education provided causal models that can be used to guide our understanding of intentions regarding participation in higher education for freshman and sophomore students. While college persistence and subsequent graduation are still challenges facing American higher education, the pursuit of a deeper understanding of the character and nature of these constructs offers the hope of addressing these challenges to the benefit of all concerned. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This study examines if and how holistic, person-centered academic advising, based on an integrative framework of educational psychology (Bronfenbrenner), sociology (Weber), and counseling (Rogers) theories, can be fostered, implemented, and assessed at a research university. The study design uses the coding of qualitative data and its translation into numeric results to understand how training in the tenets of integrative theory would affect the quality and quantity of advising content at a key juncture for student retention, persistence, and graduation. The analysis of the data is based on benchmarks culled from the theoretical framework, incorporated into the training, and defined by criteria regarding holistic reviews of student records, evidence of strengths-based, person-centered guidance, personalized and individualized student contact, referrals, and follow-up, and the quantity and timing of advisor contacts. Results indicate that there is a relationship between training in ecological systems and person-centered theories and performance on a benchmarked assessment, particularly when assessing for the quality of advising content. The relationship was more pronounced within the sample of college student records than for those in the professional schools, leading to further research questions regarding the specific implications of organizational infrastructure and systems on performance outcomes. Additional questions regarding the link between advisor motivation, training, and performance also surfaced. Overall, the study provides a model for developing enrollment initiatives and educational programs that are not only rooted in theory and driven by data, but are also holistic, strengths-based, and aligned to training curriculum, benchmarked standards, and outcome-based assessments. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The purpose of this study is to investigate why girls in an urban high school setting engage in physical fights in order to better understand the female student's mindset about fighting. A search of ERIC, Sociological Abstracts, Psychological Abstracts, Dissertation Abstracts and dissertations was conducted to review research in the following areas: physical fighting, violence, aggression, bullying, adolescent females, and lower socioeconomic influences associated with violence in youth. A further review examined quantitative and qualitative studies similar in nature to this study. Variables predicting aggression and physical violence were neighborhood stressors, exposure to violence in the community, low socioeconomic status, depression, sexual and physical abuse, lack of parental involvement, bullying, and racism. This phenomenological study addresses the overarching question of how adolescent female fighters attending school in the urban setting make sense of their world. Various examples drawn from the interviews illustrate the phenomenon of fighting from a fighter's perspective, and these examples are enhanced by the researcher's observations as an administrator. Qualitative interviews and observations demonstrate how emotional insecurity and jeopardized physical safety were underlying themes to fighting behaviors and the data demonstrates that increased intensity of the characteristics indicated in these themes exacerbated fighting behaviors. Poverty also magnifies the effects of emotional insecurity and jeopardized physical safety, as girl fighters experience loss and stress in their daily lives. The analysis employs a Marxist framework to demonstrate how the issues surrounding girls' fighting manifest broader societal problem, and the themes of social and material poverty parallel the Marxist framework. Marx argues that capitalism creates competition, aggression, a lack of interdependence, and a loss of sense of community. Competition and aggression are expressed to regain a sense of self, especially by those living in impoverished conditions. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The body of research work presented in this dissertation integrates critical ethnography with video and conversation analyses in order to provide ways to articulate and understand the complexities associated with social life enactment as it unfolds during cogenerative dialogues and in the science classroom as the teacher and her students engage in science teaching and learning. The primary goal is to improve the teaching and learning of science in an urban science classroom at a public high school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In order to understand what is going on in the classroom and why, I worked with a female science teacher who identify as an African-American and her culturally diversified students in a biology class to examine teacher's and students' conscious and unconscious patterned actions, (i.e., classroom practices, that structure teaching and learning in the classroom. It is my belief that to improve science teaching and learning in the classroom, it is salient to improve science teacher's practices as a precursor to transforming students' practices. In order to ameliorate breaches in the fluency of encounters in the classroom, the teacher and her students need to establish and sustain critical, collaborative and collective conversations through cogen. I employ theoretical lenses of cultural sociology that I triangulate with sociology of emotions and critical pedagogy. I focus on culture as schemas and associated practices layered with the triple dialectics of agency, passivity and structure as new or hybridized/interstitial cultures that are produced get enacted in the science classroom to transform teacher's and her students' encounters with each other. The salient implication is that since encounters are imbued with emotions, teacher and her students learn to generate positive emotional energy during cogen that gets reproduced and transformed in the science classroom. Positive emotional energy creates resources that help to initiate and sustain interaction ritual chains that support synchrony, solidarity, sense of affiliation and identity that are necessary for the teacher to be successful as a science teacher and her students to be successful as science learners. Salient to the findings in this study is the need for teachers to envision teaching and learning as a collaborative and collective endeavor with their students. Teachers need the perspectives of others; and students are in the best position to provide the teacher with the authentic perspectives she needs to improve her practice. By "being with" and "working with" their teacher, students and teacher share their classroom experiences with each other, in an environment void of hegemony, in order to achieve their individual goals and collective motives in the urban science classroom. Teacher and her students get to know more about each other socially and culturally and are able to work through their differences to achieve success. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This study examined the effects of using podcasts as a medium of communication toward affecting student perception of community within the online learning environment. A control and treatment group comparison design was employed with 184 online undergraduate students selected through purposive sampling at Ashland Community and Technical College. For this study, independent variables included student exposure to podcasts, student non-exposure to podcasts and the covariates of age, gender and academic field of study. The dependent variables were student perception of community based on the factors of connectedness and learning in addition to student propensity to continue an online course. Research data were collected via a survey based on Rovai's (2002) Classroom Community Scale. Survey data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, bivariate analysis (correlation, t-test, ANOVA) and multivariate analysis (ANCOVA). In comparing the experimental group to the control group, the findings indicated that there were statistically significant differences. The experimental group reported significantly greater student perception of connectedness and significantly greater propensity to continue the course. In comparing the experimental and the control groups on student perception of learning, no significant differences were found. This study addresses a complete lack of existing relative literature, specifically quantitative evidence to validate a specific application of podcasting within the realm of online higher education and adds to the growing knowledge on how to effectively create online learning communities. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This study explores the use of cogenerative dialogue (cogen) in an Adult Basic Education (ABE) program located in New York City, and the ways in which students and teachers collaborated to cogenerate resources that afforded a positive and equitable learning environment built on solidarity and new perspectives on teaching and learning of mathematics. Cogen was introduced to understand how certain structural characteristics within the classroom environment enable or constrain students' agency and understandings of mathematics. The research presented in this study focuses on improving the teaching and learning of mathematics in a General Education Development (GED) mathematics class from the perspectives of the students--the immediate stakeholders. The theoretical frameworks employed in this critical ethnography are cultural sociology, sociology of emotions and hermeneutic phenomenology, which are used to describe and interpret students' experiences within GED mathematics classrooms and their associated computer-assisted instructed class. Cogen and conversion analysis were used to gather data and process multiple data sources such as observations, interviews, video and audio recordings. Findings from this research depicts that cogen created learning environments that fit the needs of adult learners in which they were afforded the opportunity to co/plan, critique and implement curriculum and instructional practice that value how they learn mathematics as adult learners. Thus, students engaged in the process of evaluating, analyzing and interpreting their mathematical knowledge in the form of sharing, coteaching, and helping each other understand ideas regarding problem solving in a collaborative setting. This research has salient implications for the teaching and learning of mathematics in urban ABE programs, the use of computer-assisted instructed programs and provides insight on how collaborative approaches among math teachers and their students improve and enhance mathematics teaching and learning. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This dissertation investigates how teaching in a hands-on science center contributes to re/shaping one's teaching identity. Situated at the New York Hall of Science (NYHS) in Queens, New York, my research approach is to conduct a critical ethnography where the focus is on improving the teaching and learning of science for all involved. In particular, Explainers, floor staff at NYHS, who are studying to be science teachers, are invited to become co-researchers with me. Written as a manuscript style, this dissertation consists of six chapters. Each chapter foregrounds certain events and phenomena, and theory and method are woven in to theorize identity construction. Grounded in cultural sociology, the frameworks of Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), and the sociology of emotions, illuminate key understandings about the construction of teaching identity. Multiple data sources including field notes, transcribed audio and videotapes, and cogenerative dialogues are used. I employ a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to data analysis. This research has salient implications for museum-university partnerships, and training for museum floor staff and has the potential to inform policy-making for pre-service teaching clinical fieldwork experiences. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Moroccan Immigrant Children in a Time of Surveillance: Navigating Sameness and Rooted in twenty months of ethnographic fieldwork in Southwestern Spain, this dissertation analyzes the socio-cultural and linguistic lifeworlds of 8-11 year-old Moroccan immigrant children as they navigate family, school institutions, and peer groups in Spain. To illuminate the constraints and affordances in Moroccan immigrant children's emerging processes of identification, this study focuses on how these children negotiate (and are impacted by) both local and macro politics of inclusion/exclusion in light of the increased levels of tension and surveillance directed towards Muslim and North African immigrants. This dissertation draws from theoretical and methodological approaches in linguistic and socio-cultural anthropology, sociology, and philosophy to provide a grid for mapping the complex issues that emerge in the lives of immigrant children growing up in multicultural and multilingual settings. First, children's social encounters in educational settings are analyzed. In spite of the discourse of inclusion that characterizes the public school's stated ideology, children's social engagements with peers and teachers reveal that Moroccan immigrant children are racialized as the "Other" and constituted as "outsiders" through routine participation in exclusionary practices and linguistically mediated regimes of surveillance. Second, in medical visits in which these children translate for their families and for Spanish doctors, children's modified translations are examined to illuminate how these children understand and traverse conflicting cultural spaces of host and immigrant communities. Third, the investigation of children's interactions with peers in ludic activities focuses on the socio-cultural and linguistic resources that children draw on to explore imagined transgressional possible identities and moral worlds. Within the framework of pretend-play, Moroccan children (re)produce and contest the everyday constraints that they must navigate in their communities. The coexistence of Moroccan Arabic and Spanish in children's games encapsulates a heteroglossic polyphony of voices that not only brings to bear the gendered, socio-political and cultural valences of these languages, but also distinct points of view on ways of being in the world. In addition to its relevance as a case study of language socialization in immigrant communities undergoing rapid change, this dissertation has implications for broader debates regarding Muslim immigrant children's educational and socio-cultural welfare in Europe. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This study utilizes the basic framework of classical sociology as a foundation for examining the intersection of the structural history of the computer revolution with ordinary, everyday life. Just as the classical forefathers of modern sociology--Marx, Durkheim, and Weber--attempted to understand their eras of structural transformation, this study follows in that tradition by attempting to understand the history of computerization as a sociological phenomenon. I utilize multiple research techniques including multiple primary and secondary data sources in my analysis. My core thesis is that the history of computerization can best be understood following Mills' (1959) recommendation for engaging in sociological analysis. The social history of computerization is analyzed using a map of the core sociological themes of both social structure and human action. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Universalism is critical to the development of science because it promotes the objectivity of knowledge. Particularism, on the other hand, evaluates scientists' contributions based on functionally irrelevant characteristics, including personal attributes and academic origins. Previous studies found a persistent significant correlation between prestige of Ph.D. granting department and prestige of hiring department. These findings raise a lot of concerns on the science being particularistic. This study aims at the Ph.D.s' status attainment in the Chinese academic labor market and examines to what extent that the Chinese scientific community is universalistic. Gender of the scientists is one of the key particularistic criteria used to assess Ph.D.s as job candidates. How gender status of Ph.D.s impacts the outcomes of status attainment in the Chinese academic labor market is analyzed particularly in this study. Moreover, the Chinese higher education has been undergoing fundamental reform since 1978. The marketization orientation triggered the competitive mechanism among the departments. More importantly, mutual selection replaced the national job assignment system, which potentially gave the departments more room for sponsorship and particularism. This study further examines how the reform impacts status attainments of Ph.D.s in the Chinese academic labor market. In the meantime, Ph.D.s' status attainment is also influenced by the structural characteristics of the academic labor market. This study studies the Chinese labor market from the perspective of inter-organizational relations and examines how the distinctive structural attributes influence Ph.D.s' status attainment in science. The sample of this study is comprised by all the faculty members who work at doctorate degree granting departments in sociology, physics and chemistry, and obtained their Ph.D. in China between 1997 and 2004. The results show that prestige of hiring departments in China is influenced by a set of particularistic criteria. The higher education reform and marketization orientation did not lead the academic labor market to be more universalistic. With regard to the entire structure, the exchange structure of the Chinese academic labor market is very hierarchical and has become more hierarchical over time. Because the effect of prestige principle tends to be larger in a hierarchical structure, this result shows the rigid stratification of the Chinese academic labor market. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The changing nature of engineering problems and new challenges that result from globalization and new ways of doing business have triggered calls for a revolutionary shift in engineering education. To respond to these challenges, the engineering education paradigm has been revised by adding more design and humanities/social sciences components to it. Philosophy, sociology, and history of engineering are more often cited as a major part of engineering education in this movement. Research on the nature of engineering (NOE), which is derived from philosophy, sociology, and the history of engineering, could have as much potential impact on engineering education as research on the nature of science (NOS) has had on science education. Thus, it is surprising that there has been no noteworthy research on this topic. The purpose of this study is to describe and determine first-year engineering students' views of the NOE and how these students differentiate engineering from science. In this research, an open-ended Views of the Nature of Engineering questionnaire (VNOE) was employed to collect baseline data. Semi-structured interviews based on the VNOE questionnaire were conducted with the second cohort of the participants. Data analysis was guided by a traditional phenomenographic approach, which is a branch of the hermeneutic tradition, coupled to constant comparison technique. The results of this study indicated that the participants' overall views of the nature of engineering were not ill-developed, but rather unarticulated. Moreover, the relationship between engineering and science was considered unidirectional rather than bidirectional. The results of this study could be used to inform engineering educators, first-year engineering coordinators, and policy makers as well as serving as the base for further research and potential implications for future first-year and K-12 engineering education. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Telemedicine, the use of bidirectional telecommunications systems for the delivery of health care at a distance, could create a more equitable distribution of medical care. Many medical tasks can be performed at a distance although some require the presence of a physician's assistant. Cost-benefit analysis of this service is difficult and requires further study. The legal issues involved and the psychological effect of telecommunication must also be considered in planning telemedicine programs. Potential future impacts of telemedicine are identified along with recommendations for future research activity and regulation in this field. (Author/PF)

The high level of prejudice in an average 9th grade world history class was addressed by the implementation of a custom-designed prejudice reduction program. Lessons were drawn from "The Prejudice Book" (Shiman, 1979); "A World of Difference" (Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, 1986); and "Hands Across the Campus" (Tiara, 1981). Lessons were selected based on the sensibilities and abilities of the target group. Where possible, lessons from regular world history curricula were incorporated into the practicum topic. Results indicated reduction of prejudice as compared on pre- and posttests. It was concluded that carefully selected prejudice reduction activities and attention to opportunities within the regular curriculum can reduce prejudice. Appendices include sample lessons, surveys, and directions for activities and assignments. Tables provide student data. (Author/DB)

An historical and sociological explanation for the misclassification of black and Mexican-American school children in special education classes for mentally retarded minors is presented in this dissertation. The California Education Code which extends back to the inception of California public education, reveals the legislative basis for the exemption policies and practices against exceptional children and nonwhite racial minorities specifically. The repeal of the separation of races clause in the education code, the basis for the exemption of specific racial groups, is found to intersect with the introduction of special education classes for mentally exceptional school children in 1947. Special education classes consequently evolved as a form of extra-legal exemption from normal school status for particular types of culturally different yet mentally able minority children. Historical data presented in the California Education Code are supported by a case study of an urban school district, Oakland, California. The organizational dependence of special education upon regular education, and the strong degree of local school autonomy are examined as sociological conditions for the growth of special education itself and the resulting minority classification. (Author/AM)

The purpose of the project described here was to devise and test a low-cost model for increasing undergraduate career information in the University of South Florida sociology department. The initial formulation of the model described information exchanges initiated by the sociology department with alumni, community organizations, and other departments within the university. The model was field tested by diverse techniques: structured interviews with alumni and department faculty; review of alumni records; focused interviews with employers, the Chamber of Commerce, and university specialists; and meetings and a survey to discover student perceptions and behavior. The model was subsequently expanded, validated, and further refined. Its final form is that of guidelines for faculty and administrators in assisting in providing career information to students. Recommendations include: (1) a time frame for career information activities; (2) new faculty roles, including information coordinator, alumni coordinator, coordinator of community development, and interdepartmental liaison; (3) faculty release time for related activities; (4) coordination of these activities with the college; and (5) university-wide planning to meet career information needs of liberal arts students. (Author/MSE)

The degree of influence instructor tutoring had on the performance of Black Hawk College sociology students was studied along with the question of whether students expressed a change in the degree of preference for the mastery approach when an instructor was actively involved in the learning process. Two classes were used: one during spring 1976 that did not receive instructor tutoring, and one during spring 1977 that did. Mean scores on a midterm exam were compared. At the close of the experiment, students were asked to express their preference for the mastery method of instruction as compared with the traditional lecture-discussion approach. Results demonstrated that there was no significant difference in the mean scores achieved on the midterm exam, nor was there any significant difference in the proportion of students expressing a preference for the mastery method when instructor tutoring was used. However, the smallness of the population tended to cause the tests to not be very sensitive. Recommendations included: (1) clarification of the mastery system in the college's schedule of classes; (2) peer tutoring; (3) increasing teachers' knowledge of and involvement with mastery learning; and (4) additional research of alternative delivery systems and student characteristics as predictors of success. (Author/LBH)

The possible difference in the performance on a mid-term and final exam between students taking a quasi-individualized mastery method of instruction and students having traditional lecture-discussion instruction was studied. A second issue examined was the difference between the proportion of students expressing a preference for one method of instruction over the other. The sample population involved two intact introductory sociology classes at Black Hawk College. Results demonstrated that there was not significant difference between either set of mean scores, nor was there any significant difference between the proportions of students expressing a preference for one method over the other. Self-pacing and class interaction were the main reasons for selecting the individualized method and lecture-discussion method, respectively. It is recommended that: the sociology department should offer both delivery systems within the department; the quasi-individualized mastery method should be studied again with instructors present during testing sessions; and an additional study should compare the lecture-discussion methods with a completely individualized delivery system (Author/LBH)

A rationale and suggestions for teaching 12th grade sociology using Ray Bradbury's novel "The Martian Chronicles" are presented. The conceptual material found in a high school sociology textbook is not always exciting and stimulating to read, but with a science fiction work that supplements this conceptual material, the motivation for learning can increase. The story "Ylla" can be used as a motivational technique as part of a unit on race-ethnic relations. The story contains the three dominant race-ethnic themes: alien, inferior race, and minority figure. "Ylla" makes a poignant commentary on the question of race-ethnic relations from the perspective of what they may be on another world. Students will be attracted to this story because of their interest in outer space and because the story allows them to become involved in reaching solutions to the problems faced by these space-age characters. Possible discussion and testing questions that a teacher could use to motivate students are suggested. (RM)

This thesis consists of three self-contained articles studying whether and how different social contexts shape population and family dynamics. In the first article, I retest the Trivers-Willard hypothesis, which argues for a negative correlation between maternal stress and sex ratio at birth (SRB), with 243 years of time series data from Sweden. I find no supportive evidence for the hypothesis because the associations of SRB with most of the covariates used as proxies for maternal stress are not statistically significant, and in many cases the level of maternal stress is indeed positively correlated with SRB. In the second article, I exploit quasi-experimental variations in the duration of exposure to a school stipend project to identify the effect of maternal education on child mortality in Bangladesh. Using birth history data from the Demographic and Health Surveys, I find that an additional year of maternal schooling reduces both under-five and infant mortality by about 20%. I also document a number of mechanisms, including greater wealth and literacy, positive assortative mating, lower fertility, delayed marriage and childbearing, greater health-related knowledge, better health-seeking behaviours, and female empowerment, but not female employment. In the third article, I combine individual-level data from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey and province-level data on wartime bombing to assess the long-term impact of the Vietnam War on Vietnamese women's attitudes towards intimate partner violence (IPV). To establish a causal link, I use a province's distance to the arbitrarily drawn border between North Vietnam and South Vietnam as an instrument for bombing intensity in that province. I find that women living in provinces that were heavily bombed during the Vietnam War are more likely to accept IPV, reflecting the normalisation of and desensitisation to violence in the private sphere among those who were exposed to conflict violence.

This thesis presents four studies on mortality inequality which advance the knowledge of how lifespans differ across social groups and the implications for retirees. The first two studies are based on the concept of distributional differences and propose new methods to study mortality inequality. Specifically, Chapter 2 introduces a statistical distance index to capture the stratification of lifespans among social groups. Empirical evidence from Finland demonstrates its utility and reveals new dimensions of mortality inequalities that traditional measures obscure. Chapter 3 proposes a novel method for investigating the factors that contribute to total lifespan inequality. It finds that in the United States, while racial/ethnic differences in life expectancy contribute little to total-population-level lifespan variance, distributional differences across race/ethnicity explain one fifth of the total lifespan variance. The next two studies explore the implications of mortality inequalities for retirees. Chapter 4 models dynamic work trajectories of older US adults and presents major results of gender and educational inequalities in the United States. It shows that less-educated older adults spent less time working, which compensates for their lower longevity when compared to their more-educated counterparts. Nonetheless, educational inequality in retirement lifespan is substantial and persistent. Chapter 5 looks at how education and preretirement earnings relate to lifetime pensions from age 60 onward, as well as how mortality affects the distribution of lifetime pensions in Sweden. The results show that the greater longevity of socially advantaged groups accounts for up to one quarter of lifetime pension inequality. Chapters 4 and 5 both highlight the importance of social differences in mortality and advocate for greater emphasis on the role of mortality in high-level discussions on old-age policies.

This study is motivated by the following question: when practitioners engage in the project of 'widening participation' (WP), what are they hoping to do? Due to both its grounding in neoliberal logics and its aspirations for social justice, the very idea of WP is contested and subject to contradiction. WP, therefore, can mean substantially different things to different people, particularly to practitioners. While practitioner perspectives are chronically understudied in WP research, a nascent body of work on WP practitioners demonstrates that practitioner perspectives are crucial to understanding how policies are translated into material realities on the ground. Contributing to this work, I explore the ways in which WP practitioners understand and assess the institutional change work they are tasked to perform. To do so, I conducted a qualitative case study of the diverse community of WP practitioners who work on the UNIQ residential outreach programme at the University of Oxford, which comprises career WP workers and two previously unexplored subpopulations of practitioners: student interns, and in-house evaluators. Through a conceptual review of WP literature, I show that dominant conceptual models in what I call 'critical WP research' are insufficient for capturing how actors agentically navigate change-work in institutional and organisational contexts. This thesis' primary theoretical contribution is its proposal that the neoinstitutional sociology of institutions and organisations-often referred to as 'organisational institutionalism' (OI)-lends us powerful tools for understanding how actors actively intervene within and/or against institutions as they work toward making higher education institutions (HEIs) more accessible and inclusive. Namely, the growing institutional work perspective (IWP) offers a cogent model for examining how organisational actors engage in purposive action in service of creating, maintaining and/or disrupting institutions. In the WP context, I argue that WP represents a recognisable 'organisational field' in UK social life, and thus operates via a unique set of institutional logics, and that higher educational institutions are better understood as organisations that are governed by wider institutional forces. WP practice, I contend, amounts to a form of institutional work, which is enacted in/on HEIs. To explore the empirical realities of institutional work in the WP context, I selected Oxford WP as my object of inquiry because Oxford represents an exceptional case of how the institutional forces buttressing WP-massification, neoliberalism, an increasing societal priority on inclusivity and social mobility-clash with the formerly hegemonic elite paradigm of education that Oxbridge embodies. Palpable contradictions find their way in every aspect of an Oxford WP practitioner's work: from selecting and targeting students, to determining which 'myths' about Oxford to debunk, to evaluating the 'success' of their interventions. Practitioners draw on an array of strategies of institutional work, like identity work and category work, to navigate these contradictions. I found that any attempt to make sense of the contradictions inherent to WP practice at Oxford amounts to acts of (de)legitimising Oxford WP. Depending on how they 'come up against' (Ahmed 2012:26) these contradictions through practice, WP practitioners either reify the institutional order, or gain access to transformative knowledge that inspires them to push against it.